OK, I knew to some of you this is not very exciting news, but to someone who has never grown one and has been trying to grow one for many, many years . . . this is EXCITING!! I ACTUALLY grew a cucumber!! WOW!! Isn't it pretty! I really should have it bronzed, don't you think? You know how some businesses frame their first dollar, maybe I should frame my first cucumber?? Well, maybe not, I guess that is a little too extreme!! Oh well. I will enjoy my first cucumber on my tossed salad in the next week or two. And what is even more exciting is there are more cucumbers on my plant!! Oh, how to contain my excitement!! Life is just too good!!

Don't you just love this time of year!! Well, I do! I love waking up and hearing the birds sing. Everything looks so green and new. And the air just smells . . . well, fresh!! I guess that is the best well to describe it. Really makes you feel so glad to be alive and able to marvel at the many gifts that God has made for you - the many beauties of nature! Sometimes I sit on our back deck and listen to the many melodies being played. No orchestra could sound this good! And the beauty of the woods!! No artist could ever put that on a canvas! So many different shades of green, each one more beautiful than the last!And I love "working" in my garden. I really don't consider it work because I enjoy it. So how can it be work when it brings you so much pleasure? It always amazes me when you put one tiny seed into the ground and miraculously a plant appears a week later. And soon you have a tomato or a pepper or a beautiful flower. Doesn't that amaze you? All by simply placing a tiny seed into the ground! Well, it never ceases to amaze me!!I "worked" in my garden last night and planted some pepper, cucumber and butternut squash plants. Doesn't sound very exciting? But, next Fall when I make my hot pepper jelly, you will appreciate the pepper plants. I will love the cucumbers on my salad. I have a wonderful recipe for butternut squash chili! And butternut squash makes a mean pumpkin pie!!Ah! the many joys of Springs. I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am!

Author

Raising goats were never in "the plan." If you had told me 12 years ago that I would be raising goats, I would have laughed in your face! But, at a Valentine's Day Party at my son's Kindergarten, the local Vet showed up with two pygmy goats. As the saying goes, it was love at first sight. And the rest is history . . .